This site focuses on Catherine Jagiellon (1526-83), Princess of Poland and Duchess of Finland, and her possessions in contemporary documents. We’ll also be taking peeks into her living quarters in her home castle in Turku and at people around her in Finland. The site is for those interested in Renaissance clothing and material culture, focusing on East and North Europe, princes and princesses, nobility, and townspeople.
Your interpreter along the journey is Nina, an archaeologist and a doctoral researcher at the University of Turku, Finland. She will guide you to topics like Catherine’s jewellery, clothing, dining and cooking utensils, interior decoration, devotional artefacts, and court and personnel. She has given various courses, talks, lectures, and interviews, written several articles on the subject, and worked as an expert for several actors. You can download her Master’s Thesis (in Finnish) here.
About the Research
The primary documents of Nina’s work are the list of Catherine Jagiellon’s dowry from 1562 and the inventory of her confiscated possessions from 1563. The dowry list was written in Polish in Vilnius, where Catherine married John, Duke of Finland, and the inventory of confiscated possessions in Swedish in Stockholm, where the goods were transferred from Turku Castle. These two critical sources of Catherine’s under-documented life have been known only in their respective language circles until now: Nina is researching them for the first time in their entirety, in their original languages, and in dialogue with each other. Nina’s research has surfaced much new information that has already found its uses in academic and entertainment circles.
If you have any inquiries or questions, please get in touch with us! You can find the contact info in the menu.